no History of the English Landed Interest. 



bonorum aliornm sive catallornm universam dotaverit ecclesi- 

 am Anglicanam," alone implies the tithe offerings. All tlie 

 otlier six signify in unmistakable language the separation of a 

 tenth of the land itself for the Church's benefit. To cor- 

 roborate the accuracy of the majority, the wording of the 

 Charter itself is " decimam mansionem," i.e., the tenth hide. 

 Possessed of these data, it is open for every reader to make his 

 own exegesis. 



Coming now to the laws of Ethelwnlf's son Alfred, we must 

 be careful not to confuse the scriptural preface with the Acts 

 that follow it. By doing this we shall have to decide that in 

 the laws proper no allusion to tithe occurs. Between the 

 Council of Chelsea, a.d. 787, and the treaty between Alfred's 

 son Edward and the Danish sovereign Guthrum II., there is 

 no historical allusion to tithes, a circumstance which, consider- 

 ing the disordered condition of the entire kingdom throughout 

 this interval, need cause us no wonder. By the treaty be- 

 tween the two kings, the produce of both nationalities was 

 rendered liable for tithe ; penalty clauses more severe on the 

 English than on the Danes, proving the compulsory nature of 

 the due. Later on, Athelstan sends forth a royal edict that 

 " his Reves shall pay out of his own lands just and due tithes, 

 as well of all cattel as of the annual products of the ground, 

 and that all his Bishops, Earls, and Reves should do likewise 

 out of their lands." ^ Edmund summons a synod which enacts 

 a canon compelling every Christian on pain of excommunica- 

 tion to religiously pay his tithes, Cyriesceat and "Plow Alms." 

 Edgar, seeking a remedy against a prevailing pestilence, con- 

 venes his Witan, which finds that it has been caused by the 

 diminution in the returns from the " need gafol" {i.e. necessary 

 tax) which men ought to render God in their tithes ; and here, 

 let us observe, is the first instance of a coercive measure, which 

 either created a legal title to tithes or enforced their cus- 

 tomary payment.^ It was the period of the Parish movement, 



' Vide Rev. J. Morris Fuller, Our Title Deeds-, p. .58; Ld. Selboi-ne, Anc. 

 Facts and Fictions, p. 200, ed. I. ; and Rev. H. "W. Clarke, A History of 

 Tithes, p. 5i. 



* Morris Fuller, Our Title Deeds, p. 74. 



